Getting organizational buy-in

We’ve seen how we can track and prioritize technical debt, and we’ve seen how involving management in the process of tracking technical risk can help build trust and understanding, but let’s talk about scenarios where development leadership must “pitch” a major refactoring effort to management.

These conversations can be stressful and represent a critical turning point in software projects. In these high-stakes conversations, your goal is to communicate the following things succinctly and respectfully:

• The problem facing the team and its impact if it is not resolved
• The proposed solution (or a set of proposed solutions to consider)
• The cost of the refactoring effort in terms of developer hours
• The timetable of the refactoring effort
• What you’d like management to do

Note that your goal here isn’t to get them to agree to what you are proposing. Your goal is to get them to...